Caribbean Sea 1934

The Caribbean Sea, like Loch Ness, is reported to save a monster.
     The senior first officer, Mr. S. W. Moughtin, of the Cunard liner Mauretania, reported that he saw a huge sea serpent. The log states: "Sighted sea monster headed S.W. 1.20 p.m."
     Mr. Moughtin, describing his experience, said that the weather was fine and the ship was one mile off the island of St. Eustatius.
     "The head of the monster was 6ft. out of the water, and was fully 2ft. across.
     "About 45ft. of its body, which was 6ft. in breadth, could be seen on the surface of the water, and, judging by the commotion caused bv the tail, there was about another 20ft. below. Its color was jet black.
     "I have no doubt that this was the type of sea serpent about which people have written for hundreds of years. Mr. Caunce, senior third officer, who was on the middle watch with me, saw quite 30ft, of the monster before it disappeared."

S. W. Moughtin, senior first officer of the Cunard liner Mauretania, who some weeks ago reported sea serpent in Caribbean waters and drew a picture of it in the ship’s logbook, thereby proving that the hand is quicker than the eye, returned today on his ship from a West Indies cruise, beset by grave doubts. He now believes that what he saw was not a sea serpent at all, but a trio of playful porpoises, swimming in single file, with the head of the first one sticking out of the water and the last one flipping its tail. No one has yet ascertained what the one in the middle was doing. Perhaps he was merely a stooge.
     In his report on the serpent, Moughtin said that J. W. Caunce, the senior third officer, was with him and that he called the sight to Caunce’s attention. He has since had time to think about it, in fact he has even laid awake at nights. Green-eyed monsters with purple fangs have stared him out of his sleep. Caunce also has had his nightmares.
     A serpent with a particularly sinister aspect walked into his sleep one night and wrapping his coils around the third officer’s throat, proceeding quietly to garrot him, murmuring at the same time, “So you will talk, eh?”.
     Moughtin frankly admits this was a nightmare of Caunce’s and said he made no attempt to draw it in the logbook. In the first place, he intimated that Caunce had an unusually hard face to draw and if you tried to draw coils around it was virtually impossible.
     Moughtin’s statement today reveals his state of mind at the time he saw “the thing,” and how he now feels about it. It follows:
     “After all,” he said, if you are looking up Fifth avenue and see something strange crossing the street a mile ahead, naturally you have to admit that you saw something, and if you only saw half of it, as I did this thing of the sea, there is just as much reason to say that you saw something.
     “I did see something and I called to Caunce and he also saw it, whatever it was, but he did not see it as long as I did. I saw it for perhaps five minutes. Personally I don’t believe in sea serpents but if it wasn’t a sea serpent, then what was it? I am divided between what I saw and what I know. If you asked me what I know, I’d say it was three porpoises.”
     Moughtin denied that he drew the sketch attributed to him in a morning newspaper.
     “What I drew,” he said, was this.
     He proceeded to make a rough sketch of three porpoises at play. He appeared somewhat fed up with the whole business.
     “If you ask me, there is no such thing as a sea serpent,” he said.
     Caunce was not available for interviews at the time as he was busy having a nightmare.